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MoviePass Changed Its Terms: Is It Still Worth It?

The company said this is to help prevent fraud in their app, adding it has been effective in the past. (Published Tuesday, May 1, 2018)

Editor's Note: After this article was published, MoviePass announced it plans to bring back the one-movie-a-day for $10 a month plan. The unlimited plan is currently available on the MoviePass website.

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Over the summer, movie ticket startup MoviePass started offering its users one movie every day of the month for $10.

Over the weekend, MoviePass changed its terms and conditions for new users, restricting them to four movies a month for $10.

CREED II FEATURETTE-1542308495246

Michael B. Jordan and Sylvster Stallone on "Creed II."

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“You have to read the terms and conditions," said George Belch, a professor of marketing at San Diego State University. "As consumers what we often do is we see something that looks good or a friend makes a recommendation, but you really have to know what you’re getting into.”

Under the new terms, customers are also not allowed to see select movies twice, but it is unclear what movies are considered under that plan.

The company said this is to help prevent fraud in its app, adding it has been effective in the past.

MoviePass now makes users upload their tickets to their cellphones. In an email to existing customers, they said failure to do so multiple times could result in "irreversible termination of your subscription."

“What they were hoping to do is get very detailed information on people going to movies," Belch said. "They’ll know what movie you attended, your demographics, and your preferences. One of the big investors in the company was actually an analytics firm.”

The company says the reason is to test for fraudulent activity.

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Belch said the business model might not be sustainable in the long run.

“Long term they were hoping they could drive people to movies and then ultimately what they wanted to do was get a share of the revenue from concessions," said Belch from SDSU campus Tuesday. "Popcorn is very lucrative. The theater owners like AMC just simply balked at that.”

But Belch adds it is still a good deal if you are a frequent moviegoer because you will still be saving money with the new plan.